My Experiment in Cryogenics

I just read an article from The Onion, "New College Graduates to be Cryogenically Frozen Until Job Market Improves." As a recent college graduate (I haven't been out a year yet) I found it hilarious, and sad, and terrifying. I went into college in the fall of 2005. I was happy and even optimistic much to my surprise given my usually cynical nature. I was going to pick a useful major, work hard for four years, and try to mix in a little fun when I could too. I was going to figure out how to balance it and graduate with my BS in Chemical Engineering and then I would have a career. Little did my freshman self know what was in store for me. I had the pleasure of seeing the economy and the job market sink lower and lower as my graduation date approached.

Freshman year: I was going to succeed after college, I was one of the few people in my family to get a college degree so I knew what an advantage it would give me. Sophomore year: classes were harder and I realized I wasn't going to be at the top of my class but I was still decent enough and someone was going to want an average chemical engineer, right? Junior year: Classes were really hard so there was little time to think of much else though I did notice that it was a lot harder to get an internship and didn't get one but I knew that I was a hard worker and good learner and would still graduate with a valuable degree so what was a summer spent working in a grocery store compared to that. Senior year: the economy finally decided to all out kick it and half the employers that were supposed to show up on our campus that year just decided not too, I did some interviews but it seemed everyone was on a hiring freeze. Then we bailed out the banks, and the stock market came back, and we were told the economy was recovering. The people who say that don't seem to have talked to anyone that graduated in my year. I dreaded going back to my college for homecoming, I must really be a slacker to not have gotten a job now that the economy is fixed right? Then I went to homecoming and was greeted by many of my fellow classmates who were rarely employed, underemployed, not using their degrees at all for their jobs, and living with their parents. I was considered lucky because I have been living with my boyfriend's family instead of my own.

I know I am not alone. However, knowing I am not alone doesn't make me feel any less like a useless waste of space. It seems that my degree qualifies for very little since I search for entry level jobs and most somehow require at least three years in some very specific area of with some type of training. I seem to be competing with hundreds of applicants for anything I apply for. Any time I think I have even the smallest chance it is crushed. I have given in to the fact that I will never achieve what I could have if I had been born a few years earlier.

Now I face the terrifying prospect of battle against all those that will graduate in May. They will be fresh and new and companies will take them over me and my fellow classmates who have been out of college a year and unemployed or working some random job just to get by. They will not have a year long gap in their resume being held against them even though employers only have to read the headlines to know why it is there. I fear that our year will simply be skipped, no one seems to have any interest in making sure that we someday will find employment. They keep patting themselves on the back because the unemployment statistic is not even decreasing but at least remaining constant, well I am not even counted in that statistic along with so many others.

I had hoped that someone, somewhere would want someone with a chemical engineering degree. I know I am lacking in experience but I am willing to learn whatever I need to on the job. I had always been told that it was more important that I could get along with people and communicate effectively and that experience was something I would gain once I started working. Now there is no lack of older and more experienced workers vying for the same positions as me and no one seems to be willing to give me that magical one to two years of experience I need to have any chance at gainful employment.

I don't need to be cryogenically frozen. This past year of my life has been me frozen in time, and unfortunately college loans don't freeze just because I have. I have lost this year and I'm not going to get it back. I try not to feel completely hopeless but it has been a long year of being broke and feeling useless, it has left its mark. The politicians and companies in control are simply going to pretend I don't exist and continue to shout that things are getting better despite all the indications because it is easier to pretend that things are getting better than acknowledge the dire situation we truly find ourselves in and strive to make it better.